


Old and New Secrets

by blueticked



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Superheroes, Supervillains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:33:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26214160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueticked/pseuds/blueticked
Summary: Zedaph doesn't know when he becomes Worm Man. He doesn't remember, and no one tells him.SuperStress and IskallMan need superhero tips from Worm Man but he hasn't been around since season 5.Maybe it was time to call Worm Man to the surface again.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 67





	Old and New Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> I know it doesn't really follow HC lore but I was really inspired after a lengthy talk about Worm Man with some friends and reading other superhero narratives :)

"Zed, do you remember Worm Man?" Tango shouted mid-air, back at Zedaph behind him.

"Oh, yeah, yeah!" Zedaph launched a rocket and propelled himself further forward, matching Tango's flying speed in the sky. "He was that superhero guy in Season 5. I haven't seen him since Xisuma managed to keep Evil Xisuma under control."

"Right," Tango nodded, "and now we have new superheroes popping up on the server but no actual evil force to tackle."

"IskallMan and SuperStress?" Zedaph grinned. "We don't need bad guys to have superheroes. IskallMan does good deeds, and SuperStress is lucky!"

"Worm Man was such a positive force," Tango glanced sideways at Zedaph, "I wish he came back."

"Me too," Zedaph's grin never faltered. There was no flicker of recognition in his eyes, no change in his voice. "I liked that guy."

They landed at the top of his tower and skidded to a stop, Zedaph grunting as he tumbled and flopped over on his face.

"Well," Zedaph stood up and brushed himself off, adjusting the elytra on his back. "I'll be off, now. See you, Tango!"

"Bye, Worm Man!" Tango waved back, deliberately raising his voice when he said 'Worm Man', but Zedaph only regarded him with a confused and amused smile before disappearing into Tango's nether portal.

Tango sighed to himself. Unlike Iskall and Stress playing the characters of IskallMan and SuperStress, Zedaph's Worm Man person was not something he _decided_ to pick up one day. No, Worm Man was a magical, mysterious persona that overcame Zedaph when Evil Xisuma was on a rampage back in Season 5. His sole purpose was to rehabilitate Evil Xisuma and once he had completed his mission, Zedaph never turned into Worm Man again.

There was a difference between hermits playing characters like Poultry Man or Bumbo Baggins, and hermits embodying personas, like Worm Man or Evil X or Renbob. Creating characters was a conscious decision hermits made, but embodying personas was more magical, more powerful, overwhelming and absolute. It often gave them additional or external abilities, like Evil X's lightning strikes or Renbob's flying van. Sometimes the hermits were aware of their existence, like with Xisuma and Ren, but sometimes they didn't, like with Zedaph.

Worm Man knew _he_ was Zedaph, he alluded to various things Zedaph had done, he was just as casual as he always was with Tango and Impulse - but when he removed the costume and turned back into Zedaph, Zedaph didn't know he was Worm Man. He didn't remember his time as Worm Man anymore than Xisuma remembered what he did as Evil Xisuma.

Two seasons later, with the convexes constantly hinting at but delaying their reprise as the playful villains of the server, Iskall and Stress took it upon themselves to fill the empty spot and become Season 7's superheroes. Except, they didn't really have any sort of superhero powers or abilities. They were still Iskall and Stress, playing the character roles of IskallMan and SuperStress.

If the convexes were to return, with their magical vex powers, they knew that they would be at a steep disadvantage, even with Stress' past experience as Duck Woman. They needed Worm Man to teach them how to be superheroes, which was why they had approached Tango and Impulse, asking them to ask Zedaph to bring Worm Man back. 

"We can't bring Worm Man back," Impulse shook his head at his and Tango's next meeting with Stress and Iskall at the Stat Poker building. "His presence is linked to Evil X, and if there's no Evil Xisuma, there'll be no Worm Man."

"I've spoken to Zed about Worm Man," Tango threw his arms up in a shrug. "Nothing. No recognition at all. He doesn't know that he's Worm Man."

"Then we need Evil X back," Iskall leaned back in their seat, their fingers flicking the edge of their IskallMan mask. They looked over at Stress for her thoughts and she nodded slowly.

"Are you crazy?" Tango couldn't help his outburst. Impulse hushed him and glanced out of the building to make sure no one heard them. Stress turned around to look outside as well. There was no one around, just dark clouds gathering in the skies above. Tango swallowed and lowered his voice. "Evil X is so… Xisuma would never forgive you if you brought him back."

"There has to be another way," Impulse suggested.

"Nah, Xisuma could bring him under control once, and he can do it again. We just need him to bring out Worm Man for a short while so we can learn how to be superheroes!" Stress exclaimed.

"No, I'm never turning into Evil X again."

It had started to rain by the time they made their way over to Xisuma's jungle towers and the rain was steadily getting heavier. It made Xisuma's towers look like white bolts of lightning against the dark sky, adding to Tango and Impulse's discomfort with lightning's associations with Evil X.

"I told them so," Impulse leaned over to Tango and muttered.

"No, I did," Tango told him, and Impulse broke into a tensed grin as they watched Stress and Iskall hound poor Xisuma. 

"Please, X!" Stress begged, stepping forward and taking his hand. Xisuma snatched his hand back and moved away, walking to the opposite end of his tower. "We need Evil X so Worm Man will return!"

"What good is it going to bring to the server?" Xisuma asked, his tone hard. "We don't need Worm Man, that's why Worm Man isn't around anymore. And we definitely don't need Evil X - we never needed Evil X." His voice was harsh, pained, guilty. No one ever told Xisuma what he did when he was Evil Xisuma, but he had seen the aftermath of Evil Xisuma's actions and Xisuma could come to his own conclusions.

Tango tried to catch Iskall's eye, tried to hint at them to drop the matter. Iskall didn't look at him, their gaze steadily fixed on Xisuma's retreating figure.

"It- it took me so long to get him under control," Xisuma continued, sounding as though he was holding back tears. "There… there was that one day in Season 6…" He rested a hand against the wall, hunched over as though in pain. They could imagine Xisuma closing his eyes in memory of that day.

"Aw, X, I'm sorry," Stress headed over and patted his back comfortingly.

"It took me so long to come back, even more so when Worm Man never arrived. Why- why would I ever willingly give him control again? Who knows what will happen if he ever emerged again?"

"You're right, X, we weren't thinking," Stress soothed. "I'm sorry. Here, this might make you feel better." Stress passed Xisuma a stone button.

"What is this?" Xisuma took it gingerly.

"It's a button," Stress giggled the obvious. "Sometimes people press it to destress."

"Ah, I've heard of that," Xisuma placed it on the wall next to him and ran his finger over its smooth surface. "Thank you," Xisuma said, then pushed himself off the wall and stood at the edge of his tower, preparing his rockets to fly away.

"You're not going to press it?" Stress sounded confused, gesturing at it.

"Maybe another time. I just… I need to be alone now, please," Xisuma said, his back facing them. His voice was hard, a tough exterior. It was clear that he was willing himself not to fall apart in their presence.

Impulse took an instinctive step forward, the ever caring individual he was, but Tango held him back. Xisuma needed some alone time and they could comfort Xisuma later. They had to confer with Stress and Iskall and come up with another plan to bring Worm Man back, now that Xisuma had outrightly denied their request.

"But the button does this!" Stress exclaimed, leaning forward and giving the button a light push.

Impulse and Tango jumped at the sudden explosions in the jungle around them. Stress only grinned and Iskall didn't move, which meant that both of them knew it would cause an explosion; both of them had set up the trap.

Xisuma shuddered at the sound of explosions, his figure tensing for a second.

"You…" Xisuma growled, whirling around and taking a step towards a giggling Stress. Xisuma clenched his fist by his side, the other hand clutching the rockets tightly. He inhaled shakily, "It was a trap. You were trying to make me **blow something up**."

His voice had changed. Rougher, lower, ominous.

"Evil X," Impulse whispered.

Xisuma pressed his hand against his head. "Stop," he managed to say, but it wasn't clear if it was directed at them or _Evil X_. He backed away from them, his feet slipping off the edge of the tower. Xisuma employed a burst of rockets in quick succession, a messy attempt to stay spinning in the heavy rain instead of crashing to the ground.

"NOW!" Stress shouted, pointing at Xisuma, and Iskall, who had been silent and still the whole time, revealed a trident and threw it at Xisuma in the thunderstorm.

"NO!" Tango burst forward, realizing too late what their plan was all along.

He couldn't stop the trident. Of course he couldn't move as fast as a spinning trident. He could only watch as the trident slammed into Xisuma and its channeling property called down a lightning bolt right onto Xisuma.

Xisuma didn't react. Or perhaps he simply didn't have time to react before Evil Xisuma was brought to the surface of his consciousness.

Xisuma had already been wearing red with his strider get-up, but there was something about the presence of Evil X that _illuminated_ the red outfit, that highlighted him as dangerous, that turned the shade of red from roses to blood.

The trident returned to Iskall's hand and Evil Xisuma's gaze followed it to where the four of them stood in the shelter of Xisuma's tower.

"Evil X!" Stress greeted with a wave and a grin.

Evil X responded by calling down another lightning strike on himself, leaning back and enjoying the charge of electricity through him. He floated in the air where he had been struck, blatantly using his admin abilities to fly instead of the elytra.

"It feels great to be back," Evil Xisuma spoke, more to himself than to them, looking around him.

"Evil X, we need your help!" Stress shouted, but Evil X ignored her.

"New world," Evil X said, and they could hear the delight in his voice. "New builds to destroy!"

"Wait!" Stress called.

Evil X flew away with an evil laugh, producing TNT in one hand and flint & steel in another.

"Look what you've done!" Tango whirled around to face Iskall. "Who's going to stop Evil X now? Who's going to bring him back?"

Iskall just grinned. "Worm Man," they stated simply.

"You-" Tango raised an enraged hand, and Impulse pulled him back.

"Let's find Zedaph," Impulse said instead, "and tell him that Evil Xisuma's back."

"Right. You find Zedaph, and bring Worm Man to us," Iskall nodded.

"Not for you," Impulse shot back, glancing in the direction Evil Xisuma had flown off in.

"Evil Xisuma?" Zedaph made a face. "Who turned Xisuma back into _him_?"

"Iskall and Stress," Tango snapped, at the same time Impulse said, "We don't know."

"Don't bother hiding their very deliberate actions, Impulse," Tango paced back and forth across the cave of contraption in front of where Impulse and Zedaph sat in the corner of the cave. "They brought Evil Xisuma back - they hurt Xisuma for their own selfish needs."

"Selfish needs?" Zedaph questioned.

"They want Worm Man back," Impulse explained patiently.

"Oh, Worm Man?" Zedaph nodded in understanding, then turned back to the redstone contraption he was messing with. "Cool, I hope he'll save us from Evil Xisuma. We're all kind of helpless against him."

"Right," Impulse nodded, placing a hand over the redstone torch Zedaph was placing down and picking back up in his experimentation. "That's why you have to go out with us and meet Evil Xisuma. Only you can stop him."

"Me?" Zedaph chuckled. "I'm not Worm Man."

"Not yet!" Tango blurted out, his patience running thin. He took Zedaph by the arm and hauled him up to his feet.

"Whaa? Tango!" Zedaph protested, but he didn't fight back, allowing Tango to drag him towards the door.

"I think turning you into Worm Man has less of an impact on you than Xisuma and Evil Xisuma," Tango stated, glancing at Impulse, who shrugged hesitantly. "Because you're a good guy, and you don't remember it anyway."

"Tango, I don't know what you're talking about," Zedaph chuckled, being held by Impulse and Tango as they activated their elytras and flew to the shopping district.

Evil Xisuma was easy to spot, lightning striking down on him, standing over Cub's cinnabun shop, holding a flame bow and aiming an arrow at Jevin's TNT store. TNT littered across the coloured wool paths Scar had marked out for the roads, ensuring a chain reaction from the TNT store all the way across the shopping district to the Boomers' scattered TNT minecarts.

He hadn't released the arrow yet, mocking and jeering at the hermits gathered below instead. Iskall was standing on top of their slime shop and Stress stood opposite them, on top of Impulse's Em & Em Emporium. They haven't acted yet, seeming hesitant to directly throw themselves at Evil Xisuma.

"Get down, Evil Xisuma!" Cub shouted, "You don't know what you're doing!"

"Oh I know very well the damage this is going to cause," Evil Xisuma cackled.

"Xisuma's not going to be happy!" Scar tried, only earning a rude sneer from Evil X.

"I don't care what Xisuma thinks!" Evil Xisuma declared. "He's not here to stop me!"

"You were good again in Season 6!" Impulse called out, drawing Evil X's attention to himself, Zedaph and Tango where they had landed near Bone Zone.

For a moment, Evil X straightened at the sight of Zedaph, and so did Iskall and Stress. But Zedaph didn't react with recognition and Evil X turned away, disappointed and hurt, flying towards the other side of the cinnabun shop to address the hermits there.

"I tried to be good!" Evil Xisuma shouted. "I tried to help that butt Xisuma! And what did he do? He just shoved me back deep inside him and never let me out! Not like Renbob!" Evil Xisuma turned to Ren, who stood at the back of the hermit crowd, startled to be singled out.

Before Ren could respond, Evil Xisuma had continued, turning his attention back to Zedaph. "If Worm Man was here, he could tell Xisuma that I've been a good person! Worm Man knows I've been good! But he's not around anymore!"

"Why's he looking at me?" Zedaph leaned over to Impulse and whispered.

"You're… you're Worm Man," Impulse tried to explain.

"No, I'm not," Zedaph frowned deeply, though there was something more to his frown than simply confusion. Tango and Impulse shared a knowing look as Zedaph cast his gaze to the ground and blinked hard.

"Worm Man's not here," Iskall exclaimed, "But IskallMan is!"

"And SuperStress!"

"And together, we will stop you, Evil Xisuma!" Iskall announced.

"You can try!" Evil Xisuma shouted at them, and released his flaming arrow.

"No!" Jevin shouted, darting towards his shop as though he could stop the arrow, the other hermits backing away.

The chain of explosions ripped up the floor beneath their feet, even where Zedaph, Impulse and Tango were standing at the corner of Bone Zone. They were thrown backwards, slamming into the pillars of the various Beefy stores that surrounded Bone Zone. In the dust of the explosion, all they heard was Evil Xisuma's evil laughter and the cackle of TNT being placed down again, dark red cubes appearing by their feet.

Iskall flew towards Evil Xisuma and tried to snatch the TNT out of his hands, but Evil X was too fast for them. Switching to his bow, Evil X shot a flaming arrow right into Iskall's face, sending them tumbling. Stress tried to lunge at Evil X, but he just darted out of her reach.

"Pathetic hermit butts!" Evil Xisuma laughed.

"That's... not very nice," Zedaph muttered, his words more emphasized than the way he usually spoke, enunciating each syllable carefully. The dust of the explosions settled around them, allowing Impulse and Tango to see him again.

Zedaph sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, hunched over with both hands pressed against the sides of his head. His eyes were squeezed shut, his breathing coming in deep shaky breaths, as though he was trying to ground himself.

"Worm Man?" Tango said eagerly.

He took a moment before he opened his eyes and turned to look at Tango, arms lowering to his sides. His eyes were wide and dilated, sparkling with life. He grinned, Zedaph's wide grin, but with a hint of additional cheekiness.

"Wow!" Worm Man exclaimed, then coughed with the dust around them. "Ta da! What an entrance!"

"Worm Man, you have to stop Evil Xisuma," Impulse urged, pointing to the red figure using his flint & steel to light up the start of another chain of TNT.

"Oh my!" Worm Man exclaimed, quickly standing to his feet. His hand raised to his face. Finding no mask, he turned around and opened the ender chest Beef had next to his store.

"Don't tell me Zed… oh, he really does," Tango laughed as Worm Man pulled out a pink shulker box and opened it, revealing a neatly folded super suit inside.

"Zedaph? I'm definitely not Zedaph," Worm Man's grin never left, even as he darted around the corner before emerging in his suit and mask. He shrugged on his elytra and looked at his rockets. "Ummm," Worm Man looked at Tango, "free rockets for a superhero?"

"Only for my favourite superhero Worm Man!" Tango declared, handing him a couple more stacks.

"Alright! Go Worm Man!" Impulse hollered, standing up to wave his arms in the air as Worm Man took to the skies.

Worm Man flew off before the second chain of TNT explosions hit them, Impulse and Tango readying themselves for the impact and holding their arms up to protect themselves. Another layer of dust arose around them.

"Hey there! Evil X! My dearest friend and sidekick!" Worm Man hollered, a faint pink figure bobbing up and down in the sky.

"WORM MAN!" Evil Xisuma exclaimed, the most excited he had ever been. "You're back! I knew you wouldn't let me down!"

"I would never!" Worm Man declared, before turning glare at IskallMan and SuperStress, "unlike some other self-proclaimed heroes, I never hurt others to get what I want! Lesson One! Heroes are good to everybody!"

That was all Tango heard from the little superhero group in the sky, because the rest of their conversation was in a lowered tone of voice, a private conversation just between heroes.

It was strange how much authority the usually reclusive Zedaph could command as Worm Man. They could tell from their defeated body language that Iskall and Stress were being heavily reprimanded by Worm Man, and from the way Evil Xisuma seemed to glow, he must have been praised by Worm Man. For what exactly, Tango wasn't sure. Certainly not for blowing up the shopping district, though.

Iskall and Stress were sent away by Worm Man with a dismissive wave of his hand, both of them landing among the other hermits with their heads lowered in shame. Worm Man and Evil Xisuma landed in front of the cinnabun shop, Evil Xisuma happy and pacified. The hermits gathered closer.

"I'm sorry for blowing up the shopping district," Evil Xisuma sounded genuine, "It was not nice of me."

"And?" Worm Man prompted.

"And, I'll fix what I destroyed," Evil Xisuma promised. To prove himself, he picked up a floating block of cobblestone and placed it back on the ground.

" _You'll_ fix it?" Jevin moved closer to them, waving a hand in front of him to clear the dust and debris. "Not Xisuma?"

"Correct, citizen!" Worm Man beamed. "I will speak to Xisuma about Evil X's good behaviour and I'm sure he will agree to give Evil Xisuma some time outside as well."

"Good behaviour?" Impulse muttered, turning to Tango, who shrugged.

"What about you?" Evil Xisuma turned to Worm Man with sudden worry.

"Well," Worm Man spoke with a twinkle in his eyes, "I come when I am needed. If you need me, Evil X, I will always be here for you."

Evil Xisuma gave Worm Man an embrace, then with a step back and a final strike of lightning, he made way for Xisuma again.

The redness of his outfit dulled as Xisuma returned. Worm Man took hold of Xisuma's arm as he stumbled backwards, resting him against the wall of the cinnabun shop, sliding him down slowly and landing softly in a sitting position on the ground.

"Zedaph?" Xisuma muttered, holding a hand to his head.

"Zedaph?" Worm Man puffed his chest out. "I'm Worm Man!"

"Worm Man?" Xisuma noticed his pink suit for the first time, turning to look at the hermits surrounding them. His eyes lowered to the large hole where a path used to be. "You mean… _he_ …"

"It's great to have you back, Xisuma!" Worm Man exclaimed. "But I have to talk to you about Evil X."

As the hermits dispersed, leaving only Xisuma, Worm Man, Tango and Impulse huddled at the side of the cinnabun shop, a single hermit remained where he stood, leaning against the front of Stress' glass shop, sinking to his knees.

He had never felt such excruciating pain in his head, his mind pounding, as though there was someone shoving their way to the surface of his mind. His hands pressed against the sides of his head couldn't contain the pain; it brought him no relief.

Somehow he knew that the only way the pain would go away was if he stopped fighting against it. If he stopped resisting the arrival of the other. Something about today's events had awoken _him_ , and _he_ wasn't going back to sleep.

There was an explosion nearby, jolting him out of his mind, followed by a soft "whoops" that mirrored how distant he felt from his own mind.

He was falling. Falling within himself. Someone else was taking over. _He_ was rising to the front.

A hand resting on his shoulder had him opening his eyes.

He took a deep breath. The cool breeze felt nice against his skin. The crawling darkness of the night across the sky felt like home.

"Wels? You alright?" the other person said. Someone was talking to him. Who was it? He didn't care.

_Wels_?

That wasn't his name, though it rhymed.

"Woah, the explosions really dirtied your shiny armour," the person said, dusting his shoulder plate with a hand. He looked down at his dark-coloured armour. It looked perfectly fine to him.

He looked up at the person, but his gaze caught sight of the four figures outside the cinnabun shop instead. Xisuma had stood up again, and now it was Zedaph being held up by Impulse, his hand pressed against his head. Tango was poking his shoulder repeatedly, gesturing at a pink shulker box. Zedaph shook his head and shrugged. The group shared a laugh.

Another couple moving figures at the other side of the shopping district caught his eye. It was Iskall and Stress, in a serious conversation. Iskall had removed their IskallMan mask, but Stress said something to them, and they put it back on.

"Woah," the person said, drawing his attention back. A wide surprised black eye and an unseeing, glazed redstone eye stared at him. _Etho_. Somehow he knew all of their names. "You're… you're not Wels."

He smiled.

Superheroes? Without supervillains to battle with?

Maybe he could fill that gap.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought?


End file.
